Hope In Despair
by Arctic Banana
Summary: Auriel has been captured by Rakanoth, the Lord of Despair. Despite his efforts to break her, she clings to hope that no matter what happens, everything will be okay in the end.


_(Didn't know whether to rate this teen or mature, so I went with mature to be on the safe side.)_

_Found this on my old laptop while I was looking for a different file. I don't remember writing this. Must have been a year ago? Probably about the same time the game was released on PS3. Makes me wonder just how many completed fics I have hidden away that I forgot about.  
_

_Also. Dear Internet: Write more fics with Auriel in them. She's my favorite angel/character and I'll love you for it forever._

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Rakanoth leered over Auriel menacingly. She couldn't move. She could barely even twitch her arm let alone do much more than peer out from her prison, though any movement she did make caused her intense pain from touching the cursed materiel engulfing her. He watched her looking around, wondering what she was looking for. Itherael? Some hope for escape? His chuckling got her attention quickly as he hovered over her like a lacuni about to devour a lost traveler.

"Are you afraid, Auriel?" he asked her, his voice reverberating through the Library of Fate and chilling the very air around them.

"You would like nothing more than for me to say I am, wouldn't you Rakanoth?" she replied quite calmly.

"All of your friends are either dead or have abandoned you. What more do you have to look forward to?" He hooked one bladed hand onto her armor and gave it a pull, twisting the metal uncomfortably against her body.

"Not all of them."

Rakanoth laughed at her boldness, which he only assumed must be hiding fear. How could she not be afraid of him in her circumstance, after all? "Are you still holding out that Itherael will return for you?" He dragged the blade down the front of her armor, leaving a deep, noticeable scratch across it and creating an awful screeching that hurt Auriel's ears. "Your boyfriend didn't put up much of a fight at all. In fact, he ran the second you were caught. He abandoned you."

While it did hurt her that Itherael wasn't there with her, it wasn't for the reason that Rakanoth suggested. She knew he never truly abandoned her. Itherael knew he couldn't take on Rakanoth alone and had merely left to seek help elsewhere. What worried her was that he might not make it back in time or that he might be killed. Rakanoth had wounded him when he fled and Diablo's minions were no doubt searching for him right this moment. Still, she held onto hope that he would be alright and he'd find a way to rescue her. He always managed to come through for her in the end.

"I know what you're trying to do to me Rakanoth, and it isn't going to work," Auriel stated, still in a calm, even tone. "I haven't even the capacity to feel despair."

"Even I feel despair sometimes, Auriel," Rakanoth replied darkly. She could tell he was growing annoyed with her refusal to admit she was scared by his tone.

"And why is that?" she asked. "Is it because you know how little the Prime Evil actually cares about you?" There must have been some truth in what she said as Rakanoth started growling with anger. "I remember the name and rank of every single angel that ever fell under my command, no matter how important or inconsequential they seemed. When my friends slaughter you, if you are even remembered at all by Diablo, it'll be as a failure, Rakanoth. And for that, I pity you." In a blinding flash he struck her, splattering the ground beneath her with liquid light. She stared at it, at the crack in her armor that bled from the surprisingly painful injury, and looked back at him defiantly. "Have I hit a nerve?"

"I could slaughter you at any second," Rakanoth hissed.

"Then why haven't you?" Auriel asked. "I'm clearly helpless. You would never get a better shot than now." He didn't answer, instead glaring at her darkly. He was no Lord of Terror, but the look on his face was still a little intimidating.

Likely the reason she was still alive was Diablo's doing. He might have requested that Rakanoth keep her alive just long enough to see all her friends killed and her home burn around her. If they ever managed to catch Itherael, they'd probably drag him back here and force her to watch them execute him, just because they knew how much she cared about him. Diablo, like Rakanoth, wanted nothing more than to see her broken and feeling hopeless. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing that happen.

She had lied about not being able to feel despair, but instead of falling to it completely like everyone else had, she was still capable of overcoming it by seeing the brighter side of things. Even if they found and killed Itherael, she knew that he never abandoned her and had tried his damned hardest to save her, right to the very end. The threat that they would eventually kill her as well held no weight over her as at least she knew she wouldn't be alone in death. Her friends, her fallen soldiers and lieutenants, Itherael if they ever caught him, they'd all be right there with her, and strangely, she was okay with that. If it all came to that, she was prepared for it.

Rakanoth glared at her when he heard her contented sigh, her mind at peace despite all the carnage around her. "Fuck what Lord Diablo says...I should just kill you right now..."

"Go ahead," Auriel replied. "It doesn't bother me, but you might have to answer to your boss."

The Lord of Despair hesitated. She could tell he wanted to kill her but at the same time he was terrified of what Diablo would do to him for disobeying an order. "Well...maybe I should just torture you instead..." he thought aloud.

"What, you mean being forced to look at you isn't torture enough?" Auriel asked. If he was going to torture and eventually kill her, she might as well go down in a blaze. Imperius would be proud.

Rakanoth, however, seemed unimpressed. "Wow...who knew Hope could be such a bitch?"

"Only to demons, dear. You're the only ones who don't seem to find comfort in it."

He didn't have a chance to act on his apparent plans of torturing her when he froze, a chilled look on his face when he heard Diablo's voice speaking to him. Apparently merely hearing his voice was enough to spread fear through his minions.

"_Rakanoth, do not fail me or your fate will be the same as Iskatu's and my brothers."_

"Nephalem..." Rakanoth growled, turning away from Auriel and preparing to face them.

Many of the other angels had mixed feelings about seeing the Nephalem, some of them even regarding them as just as untrustworthy as the demons that were storming their home. Auriel on the other hand bounced back from being contentedly resigned to death to being happy to be alive just at the mere sight of them. She tried to keep her eyes on the fight, but it was already hard to see anything that wasn't directly in front of her while being held in this prison. She became distracted soon anyway when Itherael took advantage of Rakanoth's distraction to come see her.

"What took you so long?" Auriel asked sarcastically.

"I got lost and had to stop and ask the Nephalem for directions," he replied equally sardonically. He touched Rakanoth's prison in an attempt to break her out, but it burned him and he yanked his hand back quickly. "I don't know how to get you out," he said helplessly.

"That's okay. Wait for the Nephalem. It should weaken once Rakanoth is dead." She had enough faith that they could do it. She had secretly watched them before and saw what they could do.

Sure enough it wasn't long before she felt the prison begin to lose its hold and before she knew it, she was free of its confines. Auriel stretched out her wings and sprung off the ground, hovering in place just to celebrate the fact that she was no longer bound to a single spot on the floor.

Itherael looked aghast when he realized the full extent of Auriel's injuries. He was plenty battered and beaten himself, but those felt insignificant to him upon seeing her lifeblood dripping to the ground below from the large crack in her armor.

"I'm fine, Itherael. It doesn't hurt as much as it looks," Auriel lied. "Don't worry about me so much."

"You should know I'd worry about you even if it was just a papercut," Itherael pointed out.

He wasn't prepared for her glomping him, her arms and wings enveloping him in a tight embrace. Auriel ignored the pain that the pressure on her wounds caused. She was just happy to be reunited with him. She planted a kiss on his face before releasing him and turning to address the Nephalem. Itherael had never been more thankful that his face was hidden under his hood so they didn't see how flushed it had gotten.

Auriel was relieved that she wouldn't die that day at Rakanoth's hands. Now with the Nephalem at Heaven's assistance, hopefully she could help direct them towards saving her home from the Prime Evil and perhaps even ending this war that had consumed so much of her life and taken so many allies.

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_Interpret their relationship however you please, but I (not so) secretly ship Auriel and Itherael, so all of the ship teasing was intentional. ;)_

_Rakanoth has my favorite character design of all the demons in the game...too bad he's only in it for however long it takes you to flatten his ass._


End file.
